Hello, Acadia and Happy Belated New Years to you.

First off, I'm so sorry to hear about your laptop.  I would've assume that Dell would be top-of-the-line computer products, for (unlike you) I got a Dell Dimension 4400 5 years ago (February 2002). 

This is very disheartening to hear that Dell can be a problem when it comes to computers (Desktops, Laptops or otherwise).

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 I had been burned once with Packard Bell when they were the kings of the computer line (I had my first one from 1995-1999; upgraded what appear to be a bad one from 1999-2001), and it was floods of online petitions banning PB products around 6 years ago before they discontinued.  My Packard Bell cooked on me like nobody's business so I had to wait a year to get Dell.

I got the Dimension from the date and year aforementioned, and I had no problems from this point on (again, I could be wrong).  I just upgraded my memory and added 512MB with my 256MB, while previously installing my DVD-R drive and a CD-R drive.  My only worry is will my Dell last after reading all of this.

I have always shutter to update my computer systems for fear of un-forseen  problems.

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Do follow the advice of the posters and get the motherboard that you need.

I hope you can work something out soon.

Cheers,

JB

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Asus N50-600 - Intel Core i5-8400 CPU @ 2.80GHz · Windows 10 Home/11 upgrade 64-bit · 16GB DDR4 RAM · 1TB SSD and 1TB HDD; Graphics: NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1060 - 6GB GDDR5 VRAM; Software: Poser Pro 11x